Customer Reviews

Guitar Hero World Tour

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

OK, so this is a review of the game-only Guitar Hero: World Tour Playstation II game. If you're here looking to get information and feedback on the bundle version or to hear about online play, you're on the wrong product page.

This review is for those traditional Guitar Hero fans. The fans who...

1: Thought the price of a full set (nearly $200) is a little steep.
2: Play casually.
3: Do not necessarily own a next generation console (Xbox360, PSXIII).
4: Do not play online.
5: Just want to play some good songs.

This was the original targeted audience of Guitar Hero back in the day and has been up until about a year ago when Activision took over and began trying to sway the demographic to the hardcore players. The general audience of gamers who may not even have considered themselves gamers until they picked up a plastic guitar and began jamming to Carry on Wayward Son. To me, this audience has been abandoned in favor of a very specific audience that doesn't mind paying more. Marketing wise it makes some sense but along the way Activision alienated their traditional family and casual audience.

I'm sure the game is uber-fantastic on the next generation consoles with the drums, mic, and internet options but for those of us who just want to play guitar, we've been sold short.

Let us begin.

First is the soundtrack. It boasts some excellent classic songs like Beat It, which is ironic since my review on Guitar Hero 3 called for this song and everyone thought I was insane, believing the franchise should not be "Pop Hero." There are other great songs like Hotel California, Crazy Train, Eye of the Tiger, etc. There are even some decent recent ones by Haley Something and Jimmy Eats World. However, there are several issues with the selection.

For one, it is overwhelmingly songs from the past 15 years. The designers had a huge love for 90s music. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when you're trying to entice gamers from a wide-range of generations and bring in new ones on the basis of song recognition, you MUST balance your selection. It's as if the designers wanted to focus on young adults ages 13-21 and throw 22+ gamers a bone or two with Ted Nugent and Pat Benetar. This is bad marketing. Rock Band, at least, had the brains to balance their selection nearly perfectly. Very few songs prior to 1975 were used and the designers could've used considerably more.

I have a few minor issues with some of the selection of live versus recorded tracks such as Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze and Sweet Home Alabama. I thought the vocals were considerably better on the recorded tracks.

Lastly, the television advertisements showed players (hilariously portrayed by famous athletes including Michael Phelps) playing Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Segar. This excited me as I love that song, so I searched and searched all 90+ songs for it... to no avail! I should have looked on the official website for a complete track list as they didn't include it. This is false advertising. Commercials for previous installments used songs actually from the games, this game should not have been an exception. If the song is there and I'm not seeing it, someone please tell me how to get it!

Next, the game is severely glitchy. I can tell Activision dumbed down the graphics and then directly ported it to the PSXII. Many times the characters on stage will do one move then immediately change a pose or position entirely. This happens at the end of every song. I've also had the game freeze a number of times when I'm customizing my character. Fortunately, this does not delete my memory card or data... yet. Lastly, the loading time is atrocious. I thought Guitar Hero 3 was bad, this one is even worse. Just to sign in under co-op, you have to wait ten seconds for the character visuals to load even if you're already set to go. Making changes to your rocker takes several minutes and half of that is loading time.

Again, I can tell they dumbed it down for last generation systems but daaaang. This was more then awful.

My last complaints deal with the format itself. Unlike previous Guitar Hero installments, World Tour requires you to play through an entire play list to advance to the next group of songs IN ONE SITTING. This means you gotta set aside at least ten minutes to play each 'gig.' To make matters worse, the more you advance in the game the LONGER the gigs get. One particular gig took me almost an hour. This WILL alienate casual gamers as the game requires a lot of time just to advance. This is not Oblivion or some extensive RPG that requires a lot of effort, this is Guitar Hero, the game that is supposed to market to the casual gamer! The audience should never be forced to do anything unnecessary and that's exactly what this is.

To a certain degree they did keep the boss battles albeit under different rules. Instead of sending battle thingies back and forth to screw the other up, you just play and play. I still think they could have done without it. Lastly, they now make you pay money to unlock certain gigs. I think this is a big no-no especially since the songs were not even worth it unless you're a Tool fan.

Now, despite my large reservations I do have some praise. The designers did fix two major issues. The first is when you pause. Originally you had to immediately jump in the song but now you have a few seconds to align your hands. The second improvement is that you can now hoard star power in co-op and build star power even when it's deployed. This makes point maximizing that much easier.

Then there's the sound studio. I'm still trying to get it to work but I think you need the full kit. It's a nifty idea but will be lost on those who just bought the game only.

All in all, the game is not bad but the designers forgot many things. It seems as though you have to play it on a next-gen console and with the full set in order to truly appreciate it. This is bad for marketing. I'll stick with Wii Music until the prices on the sets drop like 50%. Get Guitar Hero 2 if you're new to this. It's not glitchy, had great songs, and doesn't require a whole paycheck to own.

Guitar Hero World Tour lives up to it's lofty expectations. The set list is LONG and diversified ranging from metal to world music to pop and country. The introduction of drums, bass and vocals greatly enhance the games long term replay value. I am really impressed with the BASS option for the game it is spot on and very fun to play. The difficulty levels now include a BEGINNER level in addition to the EASY, MEDIUM, HARD and EXPERT options. Another good feature of World Tour is the ability to toggle between difficulty levels and still continue through the same set list. There are also some new play options for guitar/bass such as continued sustain notes and open strum notes. It took me a good couple of days just to complete the game ONE time, so you really get a good bang for your buck. I have not even gotten to the create your own rocker or song creator options yet. The Bottom Line...this is the BEST title in the guitar hero series...yet...Guitar Hero Metallica is on the horizon. Highly Recommended.

First off, I don't use the World Tour equipment. I use the wireless Kramer Striker guitar from the GHIII bundle, and I use the Rock Band drums and microphone (which work flawlessly, by the way, although the Rock Band drumkit has one less drum).

Overall, it feels like they're trying to mimic Rock Band and succeeding in some ways, but failing in others.

Graphics:
The graphics are a little bit better than GHIII. The drummer no longer moves like a robot, and they ditched GHIII's deformed singer. The settings are pretty nice too, especially the freaky one during the Tool songs. However, I'd say the graphics pale in comparison to Rock Band 2, or even Rock Band 1. The Rock Band games have very realistic characters, and things still seem a little artificial here. Also, the graphics on the note charts are slightly tweaked (the notes are raised a little more), but I don't think it's much better or worse than the graphics on the GHIII note charts.

Interface:
Fail. Honestly, the menus are quite confusing and it's disorienting for a while. For one, some reviewers mentioned that you can only save the game if you finish the entire setlist. That's actually not true, but it's definitely easy to draw that conclusion based upon the interface and lack of instructions (note: just pause the game during a song, select quit, and the previously beaten songs will be saved...you can pick up where you left off anytime or play any of the previously beaten songs you wish). Also, without Rock Band 2's World Map, the menus don't really add to the touring-around-the-world feel that Rock Band 2 has.

Difficulty:
In addition to mimicking Rock Band, the overall difficulty is another area where they have alienated some fans, although I personally like the change. As you may have heard, World Tour is easier than GHIII. However, I think the drop in difficulty is overstated. In World Tour, I can beat most but not all songs on Expert guitar. Currently, I have two left, Joe Satriani's "Satch Boogie" and System of a Down's "B.Y.O.B.". Let's put this in perspective since you don't know my skill level (for Expert guitar, my main instrument):
RB1: beat everything
RB2: can't beat 1 song
GHI: beat everything
GHII: can't beat 1 song
GH80's: beat everything (on sightread)
GHIII: can't beat 4 songs
GHAerosmith: beat everything
GHWT: can't beat 2 songs

Looking back, it's easier than GHIII but not that much easier. I'd say if you dropped "Jordan", it would slightly harder than Guitar Hero II. Sure, there's no "Through the Fire and Flames", but I thought GHIII was a little too hard and I welcomed the change. It's at least much harder than Guitar Hero:Aerosmith. Expert players may disagree, so be forewarned that it is at least a little bit easier on guitar.

The difficulty on bass is pretty good. They added open notes which take a while to get used to. Overall, I'd say it provides a decent challenge, slightly easier than guitar on World Tour but much harder than bass on Rock Band 1.

Drums are bit easier than on the Rock Band games, but they're still pretty challenging. I can't say how using the World Tour drums affects this.

Vocals are harder than in Rock Band 1 or 2 and it's almost impossible to get 100% on a song.

One very nice thing about the difficulty is that it can be changed in the middle of a game. You can switch the difficulty between songs and even in the middle of a setlist, so you no longer have to get stuck. If you got stuck on a song in GHIII, you could only play later songs in Quickplay but not Career mode. Even then you had to unlock the later songs for Quickplay by beating them on an easier difficulty setting. Now if you get stuck on a song, say on Expert, just drop the difficulty to Hard, beat the song, and then put it back on Expert. I had to do this with "B.Y.O.B." which I haven't beaten on Expert, yet it didn't stop me from playing later songs (which is good, "B.Y.O.B." is undertiered).


Setlist:
Decent. There's some good metal, indie-rock, classic rock, and even a good country song. Overall, there's a nice variety and some decent choices. The only problem is that there is a significant overlap with Rock Band 2. There are of course a few songs I don't like, but that's to be expected and you can't perfectly please everyone. There are at least very few songs that I can't stand.
Favorites:
Metallica - "Trapped Under Ice"
Michael Jackson - "Beat It"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train"
Jimi Hendrix - "Purple Haze (live)"
Willie Nelson - "On the Road Again (live)"
Modest Mouse - "Float On" (also in RB2)
Silversun Pickups - "Lazy Eye" (also in RB2)
Tool - "Vicarious" (they have 3 songs in this game)

Gameplay:
It's definitely a fun experience and it has plenty of new elements.
Specifically...

Guitar:
It now allows you to strum notes or add notes to long notes. You'll get used to this quickly. Also, there are tapped notes, notes that work like hammer-ons/pull-offs except you aren't required to hit the previous note. Overall, the songs are fun to play, even if a little less challenging than on GHIII.

Bass:
It works like guitar in GHIII except it now supports open notes where you strum the note without holding any frets. They are represented by a horizontal line on the note chart similar to the bass drum for drums. I find bass to be more fun here than on the Rock Band games, and the challenge is pretty good. It does take a little while to get used to the open notes, however, but they're easy enough when you get the hang of it.

Drums:
This works just like Rock Band drums except the kit has one more drum. I use Rock Band drums which are compatible, and the note charts are adjusted to account for the fact that I'm using one less drum. Drumming in this game is super-fun. It's a little bit easier than Rock Band drumming in my opinion, although that may be because I'm using Rock Band drums, but there are a handful of fairly challenging songs.

Vocals:
This works like Rock Band vocals except scoring is handled differently and the game doesn't really give you as much feedback to how well you are doing. Vocals are pretty hard in this game, but not unreasonable. Songs like "B.Y.O.B." and "One Way or Another" can be very challenging, yet fun.

Saving/loading:
Like GHIII, saving on the PS2 version is soooooo slow. Also, like GHIII, sometimes it saves when there's really nothing to save. Saving has been second biggest source of frustration with this game (the first being trying to pass "B.Y.O.B" on guitar ;) ).
"I failed the song. Why are you saving?! There's nothing to save!! Waiting, waiting, waiting...should I take a smoke break? AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Save already!!!"
Loading is kind of slow too, but it's much better than saving.

Character/guitar customization:
Although the Rock Band games have character creation, they were stripped from the PS2 versions. Finally, we get a PS2 game which supports character creation. However, it's a pretty limited system. It's hard to develop a unique character that looks interesting, but not deformed. Although it's nice to see character customization on the PS2, we still got the short end of the stick (supposedly it's better on the other systems). At least the guitar customization was good. I was actually very impressed by this. It gives you plenty of options and you can come up with a good-looking, unique guitar fairly easily.

Overall:
I'd say GH II and III are still my favorite Guitar Hero games, but I'll put this one in third place (fourth surely once I get a crack at Guitar Hero:Metallica which I'm picking up tomorrow). It's not too easy or too hard and the setlist is pretty good. The interface is bad and saving takes forever, but it's not enough for me to to hate the game. If you're deciding between World Tour and Rock Band 2, I'd say get both, but if you are going to get only one, my preference is Rock Band 2. World Tour is fun, but Rock Band 2 has an even better setlist, slightly better challenge (MUCH harder than the too-easy Rock Band 1), a better interface, and better graphics.

For some background...

I have all of the previous Guitar Hero games so I was very excited to see this coming out (even though I'm not getting the other instruments or a new guitar). I've played Rock Band several times, though.

My purpose in the GH games is to enjoy the challenge and go for the highest score/number of stars that I can, the ultimate goal getting 5 stars on every song in the game (guitar only). If that's how you play the game, here are some observations before you buy. First, the bad:

- They totally changed their format and unsuccessfully tried to copy the setup of Rock Band. I liked the format before that included the vertical list, unlocking songs, etc. in a natural progression that was easy to see on screen and follow; you always knew what you'd accomplished. That is no longer the case.

- Fonts: I have a large TV, but all the on-screen fonts and texts are WAY too small and very hard to read! I have to squint to read songs lists and stars acquired. They could have trippled the font sizes and still had room for the bad graphics.

- Load times/Navigation: Loading the game takes forever, transition screens take forever, and there are extra confirmation screens that do nothing but add time to the eternity it already takes to get somewhere. This was a growing issue between GH2 and GH3 and I was shocked to see it got much worse.

- Song Groupings: The songs have virtually nothing to do with each other. In the other games they had basic themes (e.g., 'British' bands, 'Easy' bands, 'Punk' bands, 'Heavy' bands, etc.) and the difficulty was well done in a steady progression. They also, more or less, chose good songs. World Tour is the opposite on all counts, and there was one instance where one of the easiest songs of the game was paired next to one of the hardest. It's ridiculous.

- Difficulty: As a whole, these songs are MUCH easier than the previous GH games, but this is probably because they had to dumb it down for the other instruments for mass appeal. Regardless, for those of us that helped make the guitar-centric game so popular it's WAY too easy when compared with the older games. (And in my opinion, the songs that ARE hard aren't good songs so the motivation to play them over and over again isn't there...)

- Song selection: While I know it's totally subjective, I need to vent a bit. I think GH3 had the best soundtrack, period. There may be a lot of songs in this game but compared to the previous GH releases I think there are a lot of BAD songs. Check the playlist carefully and really consider it before buying. I kept waiting for a song to give me some crunch and there was only one or two in the whole game.

- Stars and progress: GHWT uses archaic, miniscule skull graphics, tiny stars, and small numbers to hint at which difficulty you played the song and how you did. Gone are the days of achieving higher progressions and knowing where you're at by selecting a difficulty level. My way of playing is obviously not the same as everyone, but my goal is to get 5 stars on every song for every difficulty. This new format makes it virtually impossible to easily track that on the main song menu when compared with all the previous games.

- Tool: I liked the concept of the Tool-only gig and the graphics in the background were a nice change, but the three songs they picked were almost identical. That band has some very different stuff so even though they were fun to play I was pretty disappointed as there wasn't enough variation to keep it interesting, especially since those songs are so long.

- New Guitar: Playing the notes on the neck is a pretty cheap gimmick to try and compete with the Rock Band guitar (which has buttons in the solo position on the neck). If I had the new guitar I wouldn't use them anyway as the placement of those special notes in the songs isn't very conducive.

And now, the good:

- They changed up the star power so that you can accumulate it when it's already triggered. This is a great improvement.

- Pausing: You can now pause the game in mid note and there's a countdown and you can resume in mid-note without a hitch. This is fantastic.

- Bass: They added a whole bass section, which is sortof a fun twist to play.

All in all, if I were to choose a band-centric game I'd choose Rock Band or Rock Band 2 hands down. They've got a better soundtrack, the graphics are better, it's crisper. For those of us who are achievement-driven and guitar-centric, this game is going to gain some serious dust on the shelf. Let's hope they redeem themselves with the Metallica release in the Spring...

First of all I have played all the Guitar Hero Games and Rock Band 1 for the PS2 and I have VERY eclectic tastes in music. My skill level is Expert on Guitar, Bass and Drums on all the games. If you are interested in learning drums - you will really learn a lot of patterns, timing and co-ordination and it's cheaper and quieter than a real kit. You can easily transfer your drumming skills from the game to a live kit with a few exceptions.

Summary: If you like the other Guitar Hero Games and Rock Band there is almost no reason you will not like the newest and latest Greatest Guitar Hero game. The focus isn't on just guitar and that could disappoint some but for me that wasn't a problem at all. There are plenty of masterful and challenging guitar songs from greats like Ted Nugents, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix. The 3 Tool songs were worth the wait.

The Song List: 85 songs! I have played all the songs through on Hard and have started Expert. There is something on the song list for everyone. There are some fun but boring songs like Beat It by Michael Jackson and Eye of The Tiger but there are plenty of songs to keep you busy. I am a huge fan of Tool's Danny Carey so when I finally unlocked the Tool songs I was in heaven. Instead of playing a venue - there are Tool inspired graphics that flash and change colors to the songs. There is a good mix of Classic Rock, 80's, Alternative, Metal and Modern Rock and even a Willy Nelson song. I was disappointed to see a half dozen or so songs that are also on the upcoming Rock Band 2 game. Still no Zeppelin, Beatles or Floyd.

Difficulty: The difficulty level is pretty consistent all the way through the game. I can beat hard and 5 star almost everything on Drums on Rock Band 1. It took me some learning to beat about 3 songs on Hard. Expert is very challenging even on some of the "boring" songs. The boring songs are few.

Fun Factor: What I really enjoy is that as you play through on career mode on any level is that if you are getting crushed by a difficulty is that you can change difficulties for one particular song and then switch back to a higher difficulty for other songs on a per song basis. This takes a LOT of the frustration out of the game. Also in band mode members can play at different difficulties. The "create" your own character part of the game can provide hours of enjoyment alone despite the slow loading time for the aging PS2.

Audio Quality: I would call the audio quality adequate especially considering how many songs they fit on there. I haven't played the PS3 Version or any other next gen version of the game so what I am about to say probably only applies to the PS2. Most songs when I crank the TV volume I can still hear the drums over the TV. Keep in mind I am using the original Rock Band Drum kit in which they have modified to be quieter. During the "wavy" fill sections you are allowed to play whatever you want and the drum assignments stay the same through all the songs but the 5 samples they use sound pretty bad . . . especially the kick. Even though you can customize the mix of the song in the options when you have the drums cranked and you have the volume cranked - when you miss a note - the "miss" and other sound effects are louder than the drums and screws up the vibe of the song. Also when the song is over after you beat it the "you rock" sound effects are WAY louder than the song you just played.

Practice Mode: This is one area where the game really shines. Unlike Rock Band when you get to the REALLY hard stuff on Hard and Expert you can play the practice mode at a full range of speeds.

Quirks: One of my complaints about the song list is that on the other Guitar Hero and Rock band games the independent stuff is kept separate from "mainstream" song list. I have no problem with independent music and I am very involved in the indie music scene as a musician. . .but the game is organized in progressively more difficult "gigs" that consist of 3-5 songs and sometimes you have to play through some lame no-name songs to get to the good stuff. There are some REALLY good no-namers on there as well though. My major gripe is that you can't download new songs on the PS2 version. =(

Song Creator: The song creator uses some pretty lame drum samples. For PS3 I'm pretty sure you can download other drum samples so this may be a limitation due to space on the disc for the PS2. Still its fun to see how your timing really is. Nonetheless I am glad they included it.

Using Rock Band Drum-kit: I had no compatibility problems using the original Rock Band kit at all. To activate "Star Power" you have to hit the two middle drums (yellow and blue). I can't wait to try out one of the velocity sensitive kits.

~eMpyre ramireX *IS* sAMPLE tHE mARTIAN

I bought this standalone game because I own all the other GH games and just wanted some new songs to play. I don't have any of the other instruments. I have been very disappointed with the game play so far for the guitar and bass parts. Most of the songs are very boring to play on lead guitar, they are just repetitive notes and chord progressions. The bass parts are even worse. You will find yourself steadily strumming the same 2 notes over and over for the entire song. I really wonder how the songs were picked for this game, because so many of them are not particularly guitar heavy or have cool solos. Does anyone really consider "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" or "Eye of the Tiger" to be great guitar tracks? Maybe they were picked because they are fun to play on the other instruments, but they shouldn't call it Guitar Hero anymore when the focus has been taken so much off playing guitars. There are a handful of fun tracks on here, but the majority will have you falling asleep (or your hand falling off from having to do the same thing over and over.) Skip this one unless you buy the band kit.

I am disappointed in this game. My family enjoys playing the other guitar hero versions. We each have a band and enjoy playing our separate careers as a family. I can't find the same option on GHWT. It doesn't seem that the kids can create their own...and playing a whole gig is way too much for them! I'm sure when using the other instruments, the game is more exciting; as another reviewer suggests, they shouldn't call it Guitar Hero if it focuses on the "band" aspect. It don't think it was necessary to take this route...let Rock Band do that. We just want to rock out on the guitar!

I bought 'World Tour' mainly because I have played my other Guitar Hero and Rock Band games a lot and was looking for some new songs. This one has a decent mix of music from many genres but like a lot of the newer titles in the series I find it takes forever to load in between songs on the PS2. Also there is not way to create a setlist when playing in the non-career mode which is kind of a bummer.

Its a good game but you cant play with two guitars you have to play with a guitar and another instrument. Overall a pretty decent game!

The game has enough songs to get through that are interesting enough, but the calibur of the songs overall is a little dissappointing. The create your own song section leaves much to be desired, as the tunes that the guitar puts out are more like notes from a keyboard than a guitar strum.
Overall, ok game, still doesn't top Guitar Hero 3.